Justice & Liberty

"Fighting for Freedom"

COMMENTARY: The American government has become a very different creature from what the revolutionaries who drafted and signed the Declaration of Indpendence once envisioned. Instead of a confederation of free and independent States, each with their own soverign governments, we have become a consolidated empire under what amounts to an elected king. Instead of a land to which Pilgrims sailed to practice their religion publicly and freely, the only publicly-accepted religion today is secularism or even Atheism, especially in the New England States. Instead of a land where life, liberty, and property are protected by government, children are exterminated in their mothers' wombs, the elderly are euthanized, every American is forced to buy health insurance against their will, and redistributionist policies govern our daily existence. Our liberties are not secured, and a single tyrant can take the country to war without even consulting the representatives of the People. To restore the system of federalism envisioned by the founders, strong corrections are needed to our Constitution. However, it is also possible to accomplish many things for the preservation of American liberty through the passage of laws within the current Constitutional framework so long as they clarify Congress' intent to the judiciary. If elected to Congress, I will pursue such efforts until the necessary amendments to our Constitution can be secured.

According to Article 2 of our first Constitution (the Articles of Confederation,) each State retained its "sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every Power, Jurisdiction and right" not expressly delegated to the central government. In ratifying the current Constitution, 6 of the 13 States requested similar language be added as an amendment, but without any gurantees that such language would be approved. The 10th Amendment, while preserving the spirit of Article 2, omits the word, "expressly," and lacks the specificity of this core principle of federalsim, well-understood by the founding generation: that a law cannot mean what it does not say. The doctrine of "implied powers" is a sham. I will therefore make it my mission to have this language re-inserted into the supreme law of the land, so that every judge and public official will be required to acknowledge the sovereignty of the individual States, without which we could not be a republic.

Maryland 4th Congressional District, Broadus for Congress

The Philosophy of Freedom

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Emerson

Thoreau

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Garvey

Washington

"I do not hesitate to say, that those who call themselves Abolitionists should at once effectually withdraw their support, both in person and property, from the government...and not wait till they constitute a majority of one, before they suffer the right to prevail through them. I think that it is enough if they have God on their side, without waiting for that other one. Moreover, any man more right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one already." -- Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience

Maryland 4th Congressional District, Broadus for Congress

"Majorities do not decide what is right or wrong; your conscience does. So why should a citizen surrender his or her conscience to a legislator? For we must NEVER EVER kneel down before the tyranny of a majority!" -- Samantha Booke, The Great Debaters

Maryland 4th Congressional District, Broadus for Congress

"Is this tame relinquishment of rights worthy of freemen? Is it worthy of that manly fortitude that ought to characterize republicans? It is said eight states have adopted this plan. I declare that if twelve states and a half had adopted it, I would, with manly firmness, and in spite of an erring world, reject it. You are not to inquire how your trade may be increased, nor how you are to become a great and powerful people, but how your liberties can be secured; for liberty ought to be the direct end of your government." -- Patrick Henry, Virginia Ratifying Convention (1788)